title: Popcorn and Bets

author: lisa roquin

rating: M

pairing: Faith/Roy Harper (Arsenal)

fandom: BtVS/DCU

series/sequel: nope

disclaimer: all copyrighted characters and their "universes" belong to their respective authors, writers, creators, production companies, producers and long lists of people that are so very much not me. Quite simply, if you recognize it, it isn't mine. No profit made, no harm intended, just having fun.

summary: Faith tracks an amulet through a few dimensions with the help of a spell from Willow. Enter Arsenal.

author's note: for TtH FicForAll pairing 1071

wordcount: 1231

Roy Harper looked at the woman. "Ya know you should leave this to the professionals."

"Professional whats?" she snorted. "Them demons. You human...freakin loony but human."

"And you aren't?"

"Yeah, but this is my job."

~*~

Faith groaned. She'd chased the group of demons through five realities with the help of some mega-mojo from Willow. The only way to get back was the amulet the demons stole from her reality. She'd volenteered for the lone Slayer might not come back gig. B had been a bit huffy and sneered something about Faith's redemption quest. B had a bad year though, Faith almost felt sorry for her. The guy she was banging like there was no tomorrow in Rome, turned out to be some sort of warlock-demon something. So not of the human and good variety when things all went down. The guy she met after that...some sort of hypnotizing demon who had wanted to see if he could thrall a slayer. He had, for a little while. The other Slayers were too young, too inexperienced to be sent off alone. It really was between her and B who had to go and B had Dawnnie to look out for, so there wasn't a choice. Faith had made it easier volenteering to spare the others the inevitible deduction and hemhawing not wanting to ask.

Now this world was screwed up. And the Demons belonged here--some minions of some creep known as Ra's Al Ghoul or something. Whatever. Al Ghoulie's but was on her 'to kick to next week' list and that little gem was her ticket home.

Now the costume nutjobs of this world were trying to horn in on it.

Five of them. Two of them she could possibly deal with. The one was all but invincible and could fly. The other broke the sound-barrier as a matter of course. But the one in the green cape, the one in black and this obnoxious jerk were plain ole human.

"Crap!" the one who flew and was tagged with the lame-ass name of "Superboy" which really wasn't any less lame ass than "Kid Flash". "Robin" made her flinch. That hadn't been pretty, her split with Robin and what the hell kinda code name was that anyway? Nightwing wasn't bad. And she liked the code name Arsenal. That was cool But it'd be a lot cooler if said pair of meta kids and humans weren't screwing up her nice little ass-kicking plans.

Crap was right. Demons. Wiry, black nasty winged demons that looked like drawings from the shows about religion, the bible and mythology on the History channel that Willow and Giles liked to watch.

Arsenal was a walking arsenal. The man had moves, and a damn pretty knife.

"You're going to get your cute but killed!" Faith snarled as she decaptiated a demon that was a second away from delivering a death blow to Roy.

"ME!" the red headed man shouted and pointed his small crossbow just beyond Faith's ear taking down another demon that was poised to kill her.

"YOU DON"T BELONG HERE!" she shouted as she ducked under the outstretched arm holding the crossbow and gutted yet another demon with her machete, moving back to back with the most irritating man she'd ever clapped eyes on.

"THIS IS MY JOB LADY!" he snarled. Another demon down with the crossbow and his own not-quite a sword, not-exactly a machete took the arm then the head off a second demon with two well aimed strokes.

"MY JOB! I"VE TRACKED THEM AND THE AMULET THROUGH FIVE DIMENSIONS!" Kick. Swing of the machete. Rolling demon head which tripped another demon. Roundhouse. Punch. Stab. Another decapitated demon. "MY ONLY CHANCE" Kick. "TO GET HOME IS TO GET THAT DAMN AMULET!"

"I DON"T GIVE A CRAP LADY THIS IS MY DIMENSION AND THE BAT IS GONNA GO BALLISTIC THAT WE"RE IN GOTHAM AS IT IS!" he spun and grabbed her by the shoulder spinning her around to face him, narrowly ducking the blow aimed for his nose. "YOU DON"T BELONG HERE!"

She shoved him to the ground and stopped the sword-weilding demon's blade with her own.

~*~*~

"I don't suppose you have popcorn and a microwave in your utility belt" Kon El stared at the bloody swath left by the bickering pair as they made their way to the pedastol where the amulet was.

"No," Robin answered, just a hit of Tim-ish smirking amusement in the tone.

"Popcorn sounds good. If were just gonna watch" was blurted out before a burst of air announced Bart's leaving. "Theatre popcorn" was the words that followed a second burst of air barely a minute later.

"Want some?" Robin held out his box of popcorn toward Nightwing, his tone somehow both amused and Bat-like.

"You three are disturbing."

"What? It's like a monster movie."

"Only with real monsters and a lot more sexual tension" Bart blurted out. The other three looked at him a minute. "What? It is!"

"GIVE ME THE DAMN THING I AM GOING HOME!" she grabbed for the amulet in Roy's hold and they both disappeared in a flash of red light.

"Should we panic?" Robin asked.

"No, not yet. Her people have the magic to send her through five dimensions to retrieve that. If it's in another dimension then Ra's Al Ghul won't likely be able to make a bid to get his hands on it again for a good long time. If she was going to kill Roy she'd've already done it and I can't see her keeping him around long."

~*~*~

Rupert Giles looked up from his book, as did the rest of the group assembled around the two large tables in the Council's Library. "Faith!"

"Whoo hoo! You got the Ghoolie Jewel!" Xander grinned.

"Here G-man. Red, this twit belongs in the last dimension I was in."

"TWIT!" the man glared. "I OUGHT TO--"

"OUGHT TO WHAT? AND WHAT ARMY GONNA HELP YOU?" Faith shot back jabbing her finger hard into his chest causing him to take a step back.

"WATCH IT LADY" he raised to his full height glaring down at her.

"ENOUGH! FAITH! SIR! YOU ARE DRIPPING DEMON--"

"Blood and guts?" Xander offered.

"DEMON BLOOD AND GUTS ALL OVER THIS ROOM THERE ARE PRICELESS TEXTS THAT COULD BE RUINED. TAKE YOUR ARGUEMENT ELSEWHERE AND BATHE BEFORE YOU RETURN!"

Faith grabbed the man by the front of his shirt--vest?--and drug him, protesting and insulting loudly all the way.

"Ten bucks she doesn't get him his own shower." Willow smirked

"Twenty says they don't make it to a bed let alone a shower" Xander grinned.

"I've got ten says that they'll get distracted on the stairs."

"DAWN!"

"Am I right or am I right?"

Buffy glared at her younger sister. "Fine. Twenty-five for the hall--not the stairs the foot of the stairs."

~*~*~

Ten minutes later one of the younger slayers rushed in. "Mr. Giles, Faith's carrying a mostly naked guy upstairs."

"Oh dear lord." Giles groaned.

Andrew showed up twenty minutes later. "Xan I tossed a pair of your sweats and t-shirt in the room for Arsenal."

"Arsenal?"

"What Faith said his name was."

"Focus on the research people, once this demon is taken care of we have more research to get Mr. Arsenal home."